The League of the Lost
by The Middle Captain
Summary: A region exists outside of the known circuit. The League is the toughest one yet, and there is something sinister brewing in the distance. Follow a reluctant trainer with an odd ability and see him grow to the strength of a legend.


"_WE NOW RETURN TO: VONDER WATCH WITH BILLIE RYDER!"_

"_Hello and welcome to today's guest on Vonder Watch: Rose Glory!"_

"_Thanks Billie! It's awesome to be here!"_

"_So Rose, you're currently the youngest Gym Leader in Vonder. How does that feel?"_

"_It feels great Billie, I've known ever since I started out at thirteen that I'd be a great trainer. I just didn't know HOW great!"_

_(HAHAHAHAHAHAHA)_

"_There's that modesty Rose!"_

-Click-

It's going to be a long day. Today is the day where I decide what to do with my life. Or not. Today was the ultimatum day. My mother had been saying it for weeks now. Choose what you're going to do, or move out of the house. As if it was that easy. The girl on the TV. Rose. She was a gym leader at sixteen. That was only a year older than me. What luck she must have. I mean, she knew at thirteen that she wanted to train pokemon, and she knew she was going to take it as far as she could. I wish I had that kind of motivation. Oh well. Time for school.

I live in the Vonder Region. It's pretty much your basic region, you know, gyms, next to an ocean, legendary myths, but there are a few differences. Namely, the Pokemon League here. It's really freakin' tough. For most people, it's the second or third one they challenge. It's a combination of that and a few other things that keeps me uninterested in Pokemon training. I'm not really that into losing hope and quitting that quickly into a career. I dunno.

The town I live in, Yellowridge, is the starting place for most newcomers to our region and as such, we're a pretty big place. Not big enough that I'd call it a city, but big enough to have a Pokemon Center. Yellowridge Academy, the school I go to, it's okay. But now's the time of year when most people choose to leave. 10 at the youngest, but that's getting more and more rare. It's really common for people to get their first pokemon this time of year. Some as pets, others as starters. It's a whole thing. Rich kids brag about their bagon, or some other expensive starter pokemon, and the others take what they can get. The poorest kids'll have fodder pokemon, like pidgey or rattata, and that's usually as far as they'll go training, but you'll occasionally see the kid with the pidgeots and raticates make it around the eight. I'm not a fan of training, but I've always liked how training was such an equalizer. It doesn't matter how rich or poor you are, if you've got the knack, and pass the aptitude test, you're a trainer. If you have a pokemon, and train it right, you're strong, and if you make it to the big leagues, well that proves everything.

"Hey, Archie!"

That's my name by the way. Archibald Evans. I go by Archie.

"Hey Dante, how's it going?" Dante Buckley runs up to me and pulls something out of his uniform coat pocket. It's a shrunken standard red-and-white pokeball.

"I got one, Archie!" He expands it to around baseball size. "It's a Meditite!"

The thing about Dante is, he's kind of my number two. No matter who left for a journey, I always had Dante around to hang out with and cheer me up. He's not like me though. I've never taken the TAT, or Trainer Aptitude Test. Dante's taken it seven times, most recently a few months ago, or so I thought. He always failed, for some reason or another, and just stuck around. My constant friend throughout school, even though he's a year younger than me.

"You passed? I didn't know you took the test again"

"Yeah, it was a spur of the moment thing. I've studied so hard for so long, and I decided I'd take the test today three days ago. No studying, no nothing. I just relaxed and said this'd be the last time. But I passed! I dunno what made me fail so many times, maybe nerves or something, but-"

Man, this sucks. I'm super screwed. There goes my best friend, off to galavant around and battle Gym leaders and see sights. Who am I going to hang out with now?

"-Anyway Archie, I signed you up for the TAT."

"What?"

"Yeah! Imagine if you pass! We'll be able to travel all around Vonder together, and see the sights, and see the women, and have amazing battles! It'll be amazing!"

The kid kills me sometimes. He's always so damned gung-ho, he never thinks.

"Dante, I've never taken the TAT. I'm not prepared. I won't pass."

"But this is SOMETHING, Archie! You always complain you don't know what you want, but that's because you never try! This could be your calling! It's also an answer for your Mom."

Damn.

He's right.

"That's pretty slick Dante." I push my hands into my pockets, and continue walking toward the school.

"I have good ideas all the time Archie. I just don't always vocalize 'em."

See the thing about school is that it's built around journeys. You learn a lot of really important stuff when you're a kid, like all about pokemon, then, when you turn nine, they teach you the other school subjects. Dante had told me the TAT is broken into three sections. A test on general knowledge and subjects, a test on pokemon knowledge and aptitude, and a practical, where you have to battle with a pokemon, win or lose, and then heal your injured pokemon. You learn all of that stuff by around twelve. Most people set off at that age. I'm told in our history class that the norm used to be ten, but now only prodigies and geniuses can do that. My case is different. I'm fifteen, and still in school. It's not my favorite thing, but it's better than nothing. But the thing is, if you don't leave at twelve, pokemon classes end at thirteen. I've been in specified career classes for two years now. Nothing specific, but usually people have chosen a career if they're still in school at my age. I attend classes with four doctor hopefuls, eight nurse hopefuls, and a few others on assorted job paths. But I'm an anomaly. I take classes based around health, psychology, theology, philosophy. It's all pretty cool, but I've never been particularly inspired by any of it to the point of a career, so I didn't think I'd stay in school. I hadn't considered training, but besides that there were entry level training internships/apprenticeships, odd jobs, menial labor and working class positions, and maybe trying my hand at breeding pokemon. The internships were just more school, odd jobs sucked as a source of income, menial labor and working class jobs were dead end, and breeding… well besides probably not knowing the basics, it'd essentially be making pokemon…

You know…

And, well, I'm not exactly sure how comfortable with that I was. So Dante's suggestion was looking better every second. Why not try my hand at training? I was reasonably okay with Millie, our family's' delcatty. That counted for something, right?

Probably not.

So there I was, unsure, unwilling, and unprepared. So I went to my hangout. It's an old stone ruin on the outskirts of town, just past a wood full of pokemon. Normally I'd bring Millie, but Dante insisted on coming with me and bringing Fu, his meditite. She was a lively little thing, and her typing was interesting. Not too many psychic/fighting types. Or fighting/psychic. Whatever. The little pokemon guided us through the thicket to the ruins, and we sat in them, Dante holding Fu in his lap, and he gave me a crash course in pokemon training. It was informative, sure, but there was just SO much minutiae, that eventually I stopped listening. I knew the basics, and I wasn't too bad under pressure. I'd be fine. Or not. I fell asleep a bit later, and Dante was still talking all the way to dreamland.

When I woke up, it was dark, but I could see, sort of like a full moon, but brighter. There was a piece of paper on my chest, and on it in Dante's messy scrawl it just said. "ARCHIE YOUR A DICK". He got the "your" wrong, it's Y-O-U-apostrophe-R-E. I chuckled a bit at that. I looked at my old antique Poketch. It read 20:18. It was late April. It should be darker than this. The weird thing was, the more I looked around, the more I realized it WAS darker. The light I was seeing didn't spread into the trees. I couldn't see that gnarled tree or weird rock that would be in plain view from the ruins if it were as light out as it seemed. I should have been worried, but I wasn't. Then I heard a voice.

"_You have a kind soul, but a clouded mind." _I heard it, but I wasn't sure if it was with my ears. _"But I have a task for you, and for that, I will grant you a small gift."_ Immediately the light got brighter, and all the shadows disappeared except for symbols that looked like letters. I should have been worried then, but I wasn't still. I had no clue what was going on. The symbols flowed around me until they rose up from the ground and flew into me.

* * *

><p>When I woke up, it was dark. There was a piece of paper on my chest, but I couldn't read it. I pulled out a flashlight from my bag, and made my way home. Luckily avoiding any of the rare strong pokemon hidden around the woods. I made sure to look at the paper first though, and on it in Dante's messy scrawl it just said. "ARCHIE YOUR A DICK". He got the "your" wrong, it's Y-O-U-apostrophe-R-E. I chuckled a bit at that. I stumbled back through the woods, and back to my house in town. When I got there, my folks were sitting at the kitchen table, stony faced, and I announced I was taking the TAT.<p>

They were ecstatic, and they immediately asked for details, like a date for the test, and all that. The reason they're excited is because my brother is a gym leader. A great trainer, and if he could go all the way, why not me? Well, I've successfully gotten them of my back. My Dad is a systems analysis specialist with a company that makes Experience Shares, EXP ALL. My mom is a pokemon groomer. Both expect huge things from me now that I've announced I'm going to be a trainer.

"Oh Archie, I'm so proud. I know you'll become amazing." My Mom said.

"(Yeah, right.)"

What? I must be hearing voices. My own self doubts becoming a reality. I'm going to lock myself into my room tomorrow and study. Maybe it'll all come back. I excuse myself to go and sleep and leave the room. I hear my parents gushing the whole night long.

When I get up to my room, I put my Pokenav 5S on the charger, and I look through the emails on my laptop. Some spam, an email from Troy, a doctor hopeful in my chemical analysis class, asking for tomorrows assignment (which I inform him of.) But there's another one, the confirmation email that you get by signing up for the TAT. They stay current, and list all the regions that are recommended to start in. Kanto, Johto, Sinnoh, Kalos, Hoenn. Yeah right. Kantoans speak Japanese, Johtoans speak Japanese, Sinnoh uses english, but one of their gyms is in a snowy wasteland, fuck that. Kalos, I don't speak french. Hoenn could be cool, it's beachy and tropical, but my cousin is there right now, and I really don't want to see her ever again. That's another problem with my age, it keeps burning bridges. Whenever somebody who is my friend decides on what to do, they usually cut ties. My cousin Maria, she was my best friend alongside Dante. But the second she gets a damned Vulpix and her license, she decides she's too good for us. Literally, she said that. I have a lot of reasons I never wanted to try training, but that one happening year after year really pisses me off. I have so many names in my 'Nav that I haven't heard from in years, just because I've never subscribed to trainer culture before.

I dunno…

it seems like whatever I try, I fail at, and I don't want to fail. My folks were proud of me today. They want me to become great, but I always feel like they don't believe I'll go through with it.

Sometimes I think I might have some issues.

The rest of the email shows the date of my examination (two days), what pokemon type I might want to specialize in (I dunno), and the gym leader list. The way Gym Leaders work in Vonder is different than any other region. If you get a gym in Kanto or any of the other starter recommendation regions, you're set for life. Unova is kind of different, no real focus on eight, but a surplus to choose from. They're a rich region though, and they maintain ten or eleven to pick and choose your badges from. But in Vonder, it's fluid. If you get all your gym badges, then you can enter into the qualification tourney. It's basically saying you can challenge gym leaders for their positions. If you qualify you have to do it in a sequence. If you want to be a gym leader, you have to battle the first one, then work your way up to whatever position you can get to before being fucked by a type disadvantage, or power level. The older trainers in the league, they can get so powerful that it's rumoured they have tamed legendaries. Some have confirmed it even. So I might be screwed. I have no real desire to travel away from Vonder, a lot of the regions don't have any sort of real League challenge, and I don't know if I even want to try and be a gym leader. I could try the championship, but the newest champ is so young, a real prodigy, and I might not be up to cut. When I go to sleep that night, it's restless and I'm unsure of what I'll do with a career in training.

The next day, I keep hearing voices. I'm going crazy. In class, it'll be snide comments or questions that go unanswered. On the street I hear pleas for food, and chit-chat that doesn't equal the amount of people on the street.

When I get home, my parents ask me what type of pokemon I want for a starter.

The thing is, I don't really know. I've never really been passionate about a type, or seen a pokemon that inspired me to want to train. Fu seemed cool, but Dante wouldn't want me to try and train his type of pokemon. I really could use a pokemon good on the road. Maybe a fire type, so I could cook things easily, and stay warm in the cold. But I see burns on trainers all the time who use fire types. The usual thing is you eventually specialize in the type your starter is, because you know so much about caring for that type of pokemon. Fire type trainers end up being cocky assholes mostly. Bernie, the fire specialist gym leader in Vonder constantly makes the news for dickish behavior. So fire is out.

I should probably think what pokemon types nobody is specializing in at the moment. Fighting is open, so is bug. Neither of those sounds appealing. I'm not a fitness nut, and I'm man enough to admit that most bug pokemon freak me out. Psychic I think, is open. But the way some psychic types'll stare at you, you know they're reading your thoughts, it's really creepy. Like you'll stare at a girl's ass, and see her kirlia or natu or something look at you and you know you're fucked. They can communicate telepathically, and then you'll see the girl look at you with the most withering of glares. So psychic is out. That leaves two types, ghost and electric. Neither seem like bad choices to me. Electric would be useful, but also, one of the strongest trainers in the region is a ground type trainer. Ghost would be cool. Only one trainer specializes in a type that would give me trouble, and he's tough, but not tough enough to avoid being booted back to the gym circuit from the elite four after the new champ showed up. I like ghost types. But, I also know that ghost type specialists… well, they…they're really creepy. They might start out creepy, or turn creepy, but being around so many ghouls and spooks must do something to your perception of reality, because not one is ever just an upstanding human being with no problems. Phoebe, a Hoenn ghost trainer, ended up being a serial killer. Shauntal, a really bookish Unovan ghost trainer, she was a sexual freak who ended up choking herself to death in an orgy, and well, who can forget the tale of Morty? So there is really only one choice.

I told my parents electric, and went to study.

* * *

><p>The day of the test, I was worried. You needed at least a 70 to pass each section of the examination, but the practical was what I was dreading. A battle? I wasn't sure what I could do with that. You see, I haven't got a killer instinct in this sort of thing, and the voices I kept hearing were freaking me out. Was I a schizophrenic? I had no clue what I was doing, I was stressed beyond belief, and I wasn't sure how I was going to pass this thing.<p>

So when I got to the testing center, there were desks set up and I sat in one near the door after I checked in. The first test wasn't too bad. We had an hour to answer general education questions, and that was my current specialty. I did really well. After we finished, we'd insert our tests into a slot on the desk, and then on a little screen that showed us the time during the test, we'd see our score. I got a 93/100 on the first part. Not too shabby.

The second test got to me though. I wasn't sure what the appropriate amount of saline solution you should add to water to simulate a Hoenn region climate. I didn't know what level of charcoal you should add to a second stage fire pokemon's food to encourage healthy growth. When I put in my test, I eked out a 72/100. Enough to pass, but also depress me on my chances in the practical. When the rankings for the first part of the test were revealed, I was towards the middle. Usually the first part is the struggle for trainer-hopefuls. Before the final part of the test, we had a lunch break to eat and rest our minds. Our devices had all been confiscated for the duration of the test, and most people spent their time socializing, and bragging to each other about their new starter. The only people I recognized were Yorick Alden and his crew of friends. They were all part of the amateur battle team, and as an added bonus, were all jock assholes, excepting Honey, a girl in my psychology who partnered with me occasionally. I ate my food and kept to myself. They did not share my sentiment of peace.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't holier-than-thou Archibald."

"Hi, Yorick."

"Finally decide to spend a day with us mortals trying to be trainers?"

"I thought I'd give it a try, yeah."

"So what is your starter?" He was fishing. I had heard he'd gotten a beldum, and he definitely wanted me to ask about it.

"I dunno man, my parents said they were going to surprise me. I think it'll be electric, probably." When I didn't immediately reciprocate the interest in finding out about HIS ultra-cool pokemon, he started talking about it anyway.

"It'll probably suck compared to Ultris." Nope, I'm not gonna ask what Ultris is. Enjoy this blank stare. "I mean, not much can compare to a beldum when it comes to toughness."

"Beldum?" Time to fuck with him.

"What?"

"I don't really know what that is man, I've never really looked into bug types." Honey starts quietly giggling. She knows exactly what I'm doing, but she enjoys it too much to tell Yorick.

"A bug type? I was varsity on the battle team! You think I'd use a BUG type?!"

"Oh, sorry dude, my bad."

"God, Archie, you really are retarded." Well. That's my cue to exit this exchange.

I straight up walk away, and leave them to comment on my stupidity. When the bell rings, we each have to take a pokeball and get a number. I get one, and my number is 34, they tell me to keep it secret. I release the pokemon. It's a tympole.

"(Fight?)" What. "(I fight now yay.)"

Suddenly it snapped into place. I could hear pokemon. All of the comments in class. It was pokemon, all the conversations on the street, pokemon. The scoff at home, it was Millie. That awful delcatty. See if I ever give her food from my plate again.

"Hey, tympole, tell me your moves."

"(I shoot bubbles!)"

"Okay water, what else?"

"(Mud, and singing!)"

So… bubble, mud… shot? And round? That could be enough. "Anything else?"

"(It's a secret, but I know the earth power. Teehee.)" Earth Power? That's a tough move. I can totally use that to my advantage. Let's do this.

I wait for a while and play with the tympole. It's pretty cute, and we make a game of singing together. I see the other hopefuls fretting, trying to see what the pokemon can do without giving anything away, and I realize what an advantage I have right now. I know what my pokemon can do before anything, and if I keep playing with it, they'll underestimate me.

But holy shit I can talk to pokemon.

I try to take in the information and wonder how I got the ability to talk to pokemon. I never could before. I might still be crazy, and this could all be me hallucinating. It probably is. I have never heard of a tympole knowing earth power.

They call my number and 56. I return the tympole and walk up to the door with the pokeball in hand. I'm fighting Yorick. I'm unreasonably happy.

The two of us face off on opposite sides of a small arena, and he holds up his pokeball. "Let's go Archibald! Go ferroseed!" A small pokemon that looked like a metal sunflower seed with green spikes and angry yellow eyes appeared from the pokeball. I sent out the tympole.

"Ferroseed! Bullet Seed!" The small pokemon didn't do anything, so I started.

"Tympole! Earth Power!" The small pokemon glowed and so did the ground around it. The Blast it shot was crazy powerful, and knocked out Yorick's ferroseed.

The ref raised a flag on my side. "Winner: contestant 34!" Please enter into the next room and heal your pokemon. As I quickly exited with the tympole I hear protestations from Yorick: "Wait a second, he must've cheated!"

I step into the next room and there are a few supplies, a pokeblock case, a potion, and some assorted berries. There's a speaker on the wall. I hear some static from it, and then.

(kchk) _YOU HAVE WON. DO A BRIEF CHECK UP ON YOUR POKEMON AND THEN REWARD IT WITH A TREAT (_kchk)

Okay. I set the tympole down, and I look it over. It isn't hurt, but I still give it an oran berry. I eat an extra rawst and cheri berry and open up the pokeblock case. It's full.

(kchk _ONE POKEBLOCK PLEASE _kchk)

Okay. "Which one do you want tympole?"

"(The red one, please.)"

"You got it." I pop out the sole red candy and give it to the amphibious pokemon. It munches for a minute and I close the case and see a chople berry tucked away for some reason. I bite into it and watch as the tympole starts singing.

"How about another treat?"

"(Yeah, yeah!)" I give it a Figy Berry, cause I know if a pokemon likes spicy food, Figy berries are a favorite. And a door opens. A man in a white coat with red hair graying to white on the temples comes into the room.

"Hello-" He looks at a clipboard. "Archibald."

"Call me Archie."

"Sure. You pass. Here's your license and I'd like to come to the Yellowridge Science Complex and meet with me at 9 am. I am Professor Jonathan Cherrywood. Please return your pokemon at the front desk. 9 am. Cherrywood."

"I got it." I take a license card he offers to me, and I see my school picture from this year. I look okay, but my hair is a little longer and messier now. When I look up, the man is gone, and I return the tympole. I walk out to the lobby and I see Honey crying on a couch. She must've failed. Sometimes this is all people have. I return the pokemon and leave, walking down the streets of Yellowridge to my house. I pull out my key and unlock the door. On the inside, I see Millie dozing on the ground. I ignore the pokemon, I doubt it has anything interesting to say to me. I walk to the kitchen, and I pull some ingredients out to make a sandwich when I see it on the counter. It's a pokeball. There's a note next to it. _The breeder said it knew electric terrain. Love you! -Mom & Dad_. I pick it up and finish making my snack. I take the pokeball outside, and I release the pokemon. It's…

A mareep. My mareep.

"(Hello.)"

"Hi there."

"(It is nice to meet you. I assume you are my trainer?)"

"So polite! I got an awesome mareep!"

"(Polite? Wait… can you understand me?)"

"Perfectly."

We talked for a bit. I asked her if she had a name, and she said it was the trainer's job to come up with the name, and got huffy and embarrassed. I decided I'd call her Wool. She was a real cutie, and I thought she was just the best pokemon I'd ever seen. We chatted, and I asked her questions like what were her favorite foods and games, and if she was excited to travel with me. We talked like that until my… linguistics skills came up. I told I didn't know how I could talk to her, it wasn't just her, basically all I knew about it. Then Millie came out, and I went on a walk with my new pokemon to avoid her. I went down the street and I saw the pokemart on the corner. Inside, I bought two soda pops, and started to walk to the park. The place was near the ruins, and there was a small beach on one end. I sat down, so did Wool, and I cracked open a soda pop. I told Wool to try it, and put it in the sand before cracking my own open and taking a sip. I looked over, and Wool was trying to sip from the top, and I realized she didn't have hands. I apologized and we started figuring out how to give her the drink, eventually settling on me pouring some into her mouth at intervals.

Wool didn't like the beverage at first, but then she started enjoying it.("(It makes me feel like I just shocked somebody!)") She kept acting adorable, and my PokeNav rang. It was Dante.

"Hey Dante, wassup?"

"Archie! Where are you?" He sounded out of breath and panicked.

"I'm at the beach, why?"

"Yorick Alden, that kid from school? He's looking for you. He's pissed Archie."

"Why is he pissed Dante?

"Because Archie, he's saying you cheated on the TAT and he failed because of it. He's out for blood." Well shit.

"I'm going home then. I'll see you later."

"No dice Archie, they're waiting around your house. Not close enough to be noticeable, but they're definitely watching."

"So what do I do?"

"Did you happen to get a pokemon?"

"Yeah, I got a-"

"Perfect! We'll fight 'em Archie. As a duo!"

"That doesn't sound very good to me."

"Come on! We can do it. Get to your house!"

"Jeez Dante."

"_HEY ALDEN! GET STUFFED YOU LOSER!"_

"Dante?" I look at my phone. He doesn't respond, and I realize in horror that he might've just attacked them solo. I pick up Wool, and run as hard as I can to my house.

When I got there, there was a group in a circle, and I saw Dante holding Fu, while avoiding a beldum. It's attacking a fainted pokemon. That is NOT okay. I put Wool on the ground.

"Wool! Electric Terrain!" She obliges me, and electricity pours from her into the ground, shocking all the people surrounding the fight. They look over to me and then scatter, even the most devoted of Yorick's followers, and I become very confused until I hear:

"Use Superpower!" And I see a huge pokemon smash the beldum into the ground. It's a conkeldurr. I look behind me and see the leader of the Wilderness Rangers in our area, John Queensly. He has a bunch of Ultra-Balls at his waist, a length of rope secured around his torso, and a green version of a wild ranger's typical outfit, this guy exudes a 'powerful' vibe.. The conkeldurr jumps away to land heavily besides the man, and the beldum is laying fainted in a crater the size of a conkeldurr fist. Yorick Alden visibly pales. I don't know why, but then the ranger says something that makes it all fall into place. "That's against the law, son."

"W-what is?"

"What you were just doing, kid. I was watching and I had my recorder on-" He taps a small device that looks like half a pair of glasses on the side of his head. "-So let's see that license, and I'll tell you how much your fine will be." Yorick hesitates, and looks around. Does he think he can run? John is stationed here to stop any sort of wilderness threat that attacks Yellowridge. He is equivalent to a gym leader! Yorick takes off and dashes. John slowly takes another ultra ball, and releases a breloom. "Fungi, use-"

"Wool! Thunder wave!" Immediately, Wool, who was standing ready to attack the breloom, shot a bolt of electricity at Yorick. It hit him and he felt to the ground, unable to move. That'll teach that sanctimonious son of a bitch. The ranger picks up the kid and nods to me, leaving on a pidgeot. That was… easy. I run over to Dante, and he's got a black eye and a bloody lip. "Dante, you all right?"

"Heh, Archie, that was nothing." He takes out Fu's pokeball. "Help me to the center, would ya?" He returns her, and I support him while we begin our trek to the Pokemon Center. "So a Mareep? I've always figured you to be a more badass pokemon enthusiast."

"Have you seen my mareep? I AM a badass enthusiast."

* * *

><p>I wrote this. I like it. I think Archie is an interesting character, because to rarely do we see the side of the pokemon world disinterested in the whole battling scene. But they definitely exist.<p> 


End file.
